The Rag Blog: Insurance Lobby Presses Ancient Medical Equipment Into Service

20 August 2009

Insurance Lobby Presses Ancient Medical Equipment Into Service

Tobacco Smoke Enema (1750's - 1810). Graphic courtesy of Dr. Charles Rookenpumpher

This old bogus device has been reintroduced
in Washington D.C. by the Health Insurance Lobby
Are You Starting To Feel It Yet ?

By Larry Ray / The Rag Blog / August 20, 2009

The tobacco smoke enema was reportedly used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patient's rectum for various medical purposes, primarily for resuscitation of drowning victims. A rectal tube was inserted into the anus and attached to a fumigator and bellows used to force the smoke up into the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration, but doubts about the effectiveness of tobacco enemas led to the popular expression, "to blow smoke up one's ass."

It has been suggested that that faint pumping sound heard in the background of the health insurance industry's frantic misinformation TV commercials is one of these old machines being pressed back into service.

[Retired journalist Larry Ray is a Texas native and former Austin television news anchor. He also posts at The iHandbill.]

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